Iwokrama sparks environmental awareness with conservation outreach
The Iwokrama International Centre (IIC) for Rain Forest Conservation and Development continued its renewed school outreach programme, engaging students from five primary schools in June. The initiative targeted Grade Five and Six pupils, aiming to foster conservation values through interactive sessions focused on biodiversity, climate change, and the harmful effects of littering.
Students of St Angela’s Primary School being engaged by Iwokrama staff and volunteers
The programme involves visits to schools, interactive sessions and workshops to raise awareness about issues such as climate change, protected areas and the impact of littering. The outreaches also focused on educating students about the Iwokrama forest, Guyana’s protected areas, the importance of biodiversity, and the impact of human activities like littering.
For the first time, Iwokrama is including primary schools, engaging with Grade Five and Six students to raise awareness on conservation.
During the month of June, the Centre visited five primary schools, delivering interactive sessions on protected areas, Iwokrama’s work in conservation, and the impacts of littering. Special focus was placed on schools that often have limited access to environmental awareness initiatives.
Iwokrama staff engaging students of St Angela’s Primary on Protected Areas in Guyana (Makena Alleyne photo)
These visits were designed to encourage a deeper understanding of Guyana’s natural resources and promote individual responsibility in protecting the environment.
The schools engaged included St Angela’s Primary, St Pius Primary, West Ruimveldt Primary, Paradise Primary and Golden Grove Primary.
While Iwokrama continues to support youth-led conservation efforts through its Wildlife Clubs in the North Rupununi, this programme extends those efforts to coastal regions, bringing environmental education to more of Guyana’s young minds.
The IIC was established in 1996 under a joint mandate from the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat to manage the Iwokrama forest, a unique reserve of 371,000 hectares of rainforest “in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”. The Centre, guided by an international Board of Trustees, is unique in providing a dedicated, well-managed and researched forest environment. The forest is zoned into a Sustainable Utilisation Area (SUA) and a Wilderness Preserve (WP) in which to test the concept of a truly sustainable forest where conservation, environmental balance and economic use can be mutually reinforced. The IIC collaborates with the
Government of Guyana, the Commonwealth and other international partners and donors to develop new approaches and forest management models to enable countries with rainforests to market their ecosystem services whilst carefully managing their resources through innovative and creative conservation practices. In more recent years, the Centre has received support from corporate partners such as Exxon Mobil (Guyana) Limited who has funded the development of its Science Programme and continues to provide an annual contribution to the implementation of this programme. School outreach will continue in November 2025.
